Editing Lich (section)

==Notable Liches, famous and named==
* [[Acererak]]: Demilich cambion creator of the infamous [[Tomb of Horrors]] and [[Tomb of Annihilation]]. Apprentice to [[Vecna]] who attempted to subvert the will of the plane of negative energy to subsequently control all undead planeswide, failed and became a vestige. Is now someone almost entirely different in the 5th edition.
* [[Erandis d'Vol]]: Probably better known as Lady Illmarrow or The Lich Queen (to us at least. Not a lot of people know about her in her setting). She is an NPC in [[Eberron]] and is the leader of the Emerald Claw and is trying to gain behind the scenes control of the [[Blood of Vol]].
* Gharnef: The secondary main antagonist in the first Fire Emblem games, made Immortal through the use of his dark tome, Imhullu.
* [[Kel'Thuzad]]: Disgraced mage of the Kirin Tor turned necromancer and Archlich of the Undead Scourge, and final boss in both versions of Naxxramas from Warcraft and World of Warcraft. If not for China, he'd still be relevant.
* [[wikipedia:Koschei|Koschei the Deathless]]: A character from Slavic folklore who predates the homogenized concept of a lich but matches the description to a T. His phylactery is a needle inside an egg, inside a duck, inside a hare, inside a chest, under a tree on a mythical teleporting island. Good luck finding it. He spends his time kidnapping maidens to literally bone.
* The Lich: An absolutely terrifying villain from the goofy world of Adventure Time. Is the personification of a nuclear bomb who seeks the extinction of all life. As if that weren't metal enough, he's voiced by Ron Perlman. Brings existential dread to anyone who watches him ramble about "The Begining".
* [[Larloch]]: The ancient and powerful Netherese Sorcerer-King of the [[Forgotten Realms]] setting, who resides in the Warlock's Crypt a superdungeon within the Troll Hills. Is essentially a veteran oldfag with all the best ingame premium items that will never be available to newer players, sporting abilities such as almost total magic immunity, as well as having a repertoire of netherese spells, and a filled capacity of wish spells used to gain every advantage in the book. At the same time, he's not super proactive, and is content to sit in his crypt not bothering anyone, and even when he does occasionally rouse himself it's for the greater good, such as defending Mystra so that magic doesn't collapse, even earning a kiss from an elf queen that would've had him blushing if he still had cheeks.
* The Magian: One of the [[awnshegh]] from the ''[[Birthright]]'' setting, the Magian is a lich who absorbed another creature's Azrai blood through bloodtheft, removing many of the disadvantages of his undead condition, while still looking like a semi-fleshed corpse.  The Magian is a bit of a visionary, for an awnshegh warlord anyway, driven not by ambition and lust for power like his rivals the Gorgon or the Raven, but by a desire to destroy chaos and impose order, a perfect, one world order that would, in his own mind, justify any means used to attain it.  Of course, given this means conquering all other nations, killing all other awnshegh, and performing all kinds of horrible experiments on innocent people in the bargain, whether this actually makes him any better is debatable.  His people do ultimately love him for the peace and prosperity he brings, in a Dr. Doom sort of way where they don't exactly have a ton of choice.
* [[The Elder Scrolls|Mannimarco]], King of Worms: Acclaimed as the first lich, Sload hero, god, and pioneer of modern necromancy, this High elf necromancer turned terrifying immortal with a globe-spanning influence is a leading narrative force in the world of the elder scrolls as the founding focus of the world-spanning mages guild and is the general prime argument against necromancy in the setting.
* [[Momonga]]/[[Ainz Ooal Gown]]: Villain protagonist of the Web/Light Novel- Anime & Manga Overlord. A Japanese salaryman living in a post failed /pol/ uprising cyberpunk dystopia who got trapped in the body of his MMORPGVR Character and sent to another world with all of his NPC minions and belongings, his minions gaining personalities based on their Bio information present in the game, often conflicting with fluff their levels, classes and races were published with- is kind of a merge with Larloch and Ssazz Tam if played by a clueless social shut-in wageslave.
* [[Nagash]]: First Lich, creator of [[vampires]] and the all around evil-badass of [[Warhammer Fantasy]].
* [[Osterneth]], the Bronze Lich: [[Vecna]]'s most powerful and trusted servant, who became a lich by implanting herself with Vecna's heart.  She uses her beauty (actually an illusion) and charming personality to tempt powerful men into worshiping Vecna.
* [[Sauron]]: The titular lord of [[Lord of the Rings]].  Not really a lich, [[Ainur#Maiar|since he was not born mortal]], but is an early example of the archetype of a powerful villain who can only be killed by destroying a certain item.  Sauron is a fallen angel who created 19 magical rings and gave them out as gifts to the rulers of the elves, dwarves, and humans, but secretly made a 20th ring that had the powers of all the rings and would allow him to corrupt the owners of the other rings into wraiths under his control.  This ring would also act as his phylactery, which had to be destroyed by throwing it back into the volcano where he forged it.  His ring also had a mind of its own and would make anybody who owned it more like Sauron and eventually turn them into a wraith as well.
* Sharlee the Enchantress: The epic level demilich leader of The Order of the Book.  She is on a holy mission to gather every single arcane spell in the multiverse into a single tome called The Last Book.  She spends nearly all her time franticly writing new spells in The Last Book because even as a disembodied hand that never needs to rest, The Order of the Book is constantly bringing her new spells faster than she can copy them.
* [[Szass Tam]]: Zulkir of [[Thay]], lich and a dead-ringer for Ming the Merciless in life, this fellow is the master of Valindra Shadowmantle, the titular Lichess villain of Neverwinter online, Szass Tam is the ruler of an entire country, governed by other Zulkirs, featuring an economy of slavery, unique specialist spellcasters, and a standing undead army in search of world domination through any means necessary, namely through use of embassies in other countries to undermine and subvert them, and is the only person in Forgotten Realms to meet with Larloch and strike a working relationship with him. Usually gets into fights with the Harpers and adventurers.
* [[Vlaakith CLVII]]: Lich-queen of the [[Githyanki]], secretly eats the souls of anyone over level 15 in her kingdom as to not be overthrown.
* [[Vecna]]: Lich who became a god and almost came close to rule the DnD Multiverse, as he bypassed the [[Lady of Pain]]'s wards of preventing gods to enter [[Sigil]]. His divine presence in Sigil was enough for the multiverse to start breaking down.
* [[Valindra Shadowmantle]]: Villainess of Neverwinter online, and second-hand woman to Szass Tam, Zulkir of Thay - a rule breaking nutjob with a phylactery a 9 ft tall purple crystal that breaks conventional rules of lore and undeath on a regular basis- such as vampire ghosts, for example.
* Voldemort: Villain of [[Harry Potter]]. Although he is never called a lich, he is barely human because of how he split his soul into pieces which are placed in seven objects called horcruxes to keep him alive.  According to Rowling, the process of doing this is incredibly vile that only one person who asked her has heard it, and was nauseated by the information.  One thing that the books do say about the process is that the first step is murdering somebody because murder damages your soul and makes it able to be split.  Unlike liches in other fiction, he isn't able to fully reform his body on his own when it is destroyed and needs a servant to create a potion using body parts of different people to complete his regeneration.
* Xykon: The [[Big Bad Evil Guy]] of the webcomic [[Order of the Stick]], or at least thinks he is.  Is an epic level sorcerer planning to take control of a god killing monster. A charming psychopath who misses being able to drink bad coffee.